It has heretofore been customary to design panel mounted fuseholders for snap-in insertion into a panel aperture from the front thereof. Such panel mounted fuseholders were not made for pre-assembly to other similar fuseholders so that if the panel were to receive a desired number of fuseholders, the panel would have individual mounting apertures for each fuseholder or one large aperture would be provided for a fixed length multi-station fuseholder generally inserted from the front of the panel.
It is much more desirable to have fuseholders insertable into the panel from the rear thereof, so that they may be wired to a pre-existing electrical harness, and then simply inserted into the panel opening and mounted thereto, without necessitating further lead attachment thereby simplifying assembly. While there have been fuseholders designed for insertion into the panel from the rear thereof, no such fuseholders are known to have been developed prior to the invention with integral snap-in clips permitting such rear end insertion which must be designed differently from the clips used for front panel mounting thereof. There probably have been provided for rear panel mounting fuseholder designs requiring separate additional parts to secure the fuseholder to the panel, such parts taking the form of a separate mounting bezel, a mounting nut, or parts performing a similar retention function. These additional components add to the complexity and cost of the assembly.
One aspect of the present invention uniquely utilizes selectively for harness suspension mounting or panel mounting some of the features of a fuseholder array construction heretofore used in fuse assemblies designed only for suspension on a cable assembly. In this prior art construction, an array of individual fuseholder units was provided where each unit was configured for selective side by side interlocking attachment to an identical fuseholder unit on either side thereof so that the fuseholder array could have any desired number of fuseholders in the array.
These prior art variable-sized fuseholder arrays were not provided with means for snap-in mounting thereof in panel apertures. Even if such arrays would be provided with snap-in clips for front panel mounting thereof, such a design would provide undesired problems because the means which interlocked adjacent fuseholder units would probably require specially configured cutouts in the mounting aperture to clear the sideward projecting interlocking engaging elements involved, to allow the passage of the fuseholders at least partially through the panel. Also, if such a fuseholder array were, as is more customary, fabricated for front panel mounting, the wiring harness could not be conveniently pre-attached to the fuseholder terminals before securing the array to the panel.
Finally, the prior art fuseholder arrays did not adequately cope with the problem of an oversized panel mounting aperture. In other words, the individual or fixed length multi-station panel mounted fuseholder required a mounting aperture of fairly precise length because of the design of the mounting means therefor. Frequently, one desires to mount one or more fuseholder units in a panel aperture not precisely sized to fit the fuseholder involved.
Thus, prior to the present invention, there was a need for a fuseholder unit configured either for individual or collective mounting, and wherein the one or more fuseholder units involved may be prewired and inserted from the rear of a mounting panel aperture, preferably by individual snap-in panel mounting means integral to each fuseholder unit and requiring no additional retention parts disposed on the front or rear surface of the panel. Such fuseholders, again either as individual or assembled units, most desirably should be mountable in a simple rectangular aperture requiring no special side clearance cutouts in the mounting aperture, and which can be an oversized mounting aperture. Also, it is desirable that the panel mounting means for the fuseholder unit or array should be sufficiently strong to securely retain the fuse array in the panel, and the means for interlocking adjacent fuseholder units should provide a positive latching lock to prevent them from sliding apart under vibration, or during the insertion or withdrawal of fuses from the panel. Moreover, the fuseholder units most desirably should be so lightweight that they may be alternatively configured to be suspended either individually or as a grouped array directly from the wiring harness.